A Vanderbilt Home to Last

The family office of Diana “Dini” Cecil Pickering, the 55 year-old great-granddaughter of George Vanderbilt, doesn’t focus on overseeing the family’s investment portfolio, but instead works at educating current and future owners of the Biltmore Estate, the largest private home in the United States, about their legacy and responsibilities.

Those responsibilities are considerable. Pickering’s great-grandfather built the Biltmore Estate, one of America’s grandest homes, a stunning 250-room, 8,000 acre Gilded Age work of art in Asheville, N.C.. It’s the legacy in that stone manse that Dini Pickering is trying to preserve and pass on, while her brother, William “Bill” Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil Jr., oversees operations and physical preservation as CEO of the Biltmore Estate.

To that end, Pickering just completed her 20th biannual family meeting, marking her family office’s 10th anniversary. It’s taken a full decade, Pickering says, to work out the family office’s mission and goals, but finally it’s come together. She, her brother, their spouses and children have policies and plans worked out, as the fifth generation, comprising her two children, two nephews and a niece, begin to take up the challenge of operating the Biltmore Estate.

“We’ve gone at a consistent rate, but not at a speedy rate,” Pickering says. “It doesn’t happen overnight, and since we only meet twice a year, it’s been a process, but I feel very proud about where we’ve come from and what we’ve been able to accomplish.”

The rest of us can only hope they are successful. The Biltmore Estate is a national treasure. The lavish mansion was designed in the style of a Renaissance French Chateau by Richard Morris Hunt; the grounds were landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted. The home itself shelters priceless works, including 16th century Flemish tapestries, rare books, antique furniture, and paintings. It has 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, three kitchens, and a 70,000 gallon indoor pool with a vaulted tiled ceiling by Rafael Guastavino. All this requires 1,800 employees, who welcome approximately 1 million visitors a year, each of whom pays about $60 to enter the estate. In total, the Biltmore generates $140 million in annual revenue, but about 90 cents of every dollar in fees gets reinvested in operations.

The reason there isn’t much liquidity in reserve, other than the profits made from operating the estate, is because Pickering’s great-grandfather George Vanderbilt sunk his entire fortune into the property. When he died unexpectedly from complications following an appendectomy, at the age of 51, the family wealth he passed on was the priceless but illiquid Biltmore.

Suddenly, making the estate profitable, something George had always intended, became more urgent, for his widow, Edith, who was left behind with their teenage daughter, Cornelia. Edith sold off some of the land to the government almost immediately, forming the heart of Pisgah National Forest in Western North Carolina. And during the Depression, Cornelia started, with her husband John Francis Amherst Cecil, what would form the basis of the Cecil family business from then on– inviting paying guests to see the estate’s riches, including paintings by John Singer Sargent and Renoir, to help pay for its upkeep and boost tourism in the area.

Pickering says no one in the family today would consider unloading the house. “It’s just so much a part of our family legacy. I guess if we hadn’t been involved, as a family, from the very beginning of its creation, it might be easier to consider it just a piece of real estate. But, since it was our great-grandparents that created it, and it’s been in our family since, it doesn’t feel like just a piece of property. It’s part of our fabric, and I feel that the next generation also feels the same way. They feel that connection to the past, and the legacy that was given to us, and a real sense of responsibility for continuing to make that available to the general public.”

They’ve also agreed on how to proceed in managing the estate, and how to work through the inevitable disagreements, mostly through the biannual family meetings. “We discuss how to communicate better as a family,” Pickering explains, “and how to build skills in the next generation of family members. We lay out policies and guidelines that will help us be prepared for situations before they arise, so we don’t come into major conflict. Even though some conflict can be healthy, we tend to want to focus on family harmony and unity. A lot of what we do is based on that.”

They recently decided, for example, the employment requirements for the next generation (a four-year college degree, and at least one year, preferably three to five, of outside work experience); financial reporting education; articulating family culture; writing down strategic and personal goals and plans; and learning about good board governance and company management. (The Biltmore is owned and managed through several Subchapter S Corporations and LLCs, some of which already belong to the next generation.)

At each meeting, they follow the formula suggested by their advisors at Family Business Consulting Group: Reserve one-third of the family meeting time for policy development, one-third for educational programming, and one-third for “just plain fun.”

“That has worked well for us,” Pickering says. “There’s a lot to fit in. We try to make the most of our time together, because we only have two weekends a year.”

If Pickering conveys the impression she works extra hard at resolving family tensions before they erupt, there is good reason. Her father and uncle, Cornelia Vanderbilt Cecil’s two sons, divided the Biltmore Estate when it came to them. Pickering’s Uncle George took control of the dairy on the property, while Pickering’s father, William, took up the estate. There was familial friction for a while. Pickering won’t publicly discuss it, other than to say, “We learned from that, and we didn’t want that to happen again. That’s kind of been our example, and why we’re so committed to working together as a family, trying to head off problems which occur in every family, by talking about them and looking into them before they [seriously] come up.”

Wise words from a woman working hard to safeguard her family’s legacy.

Add a Comment

We welcome thoughtful comments from readers. Please comply with our guidelines. Our blogs do not require the use of your real name.

Comment

There are 3 comments

JUNE 27, 2013 12:52 A.M.

Quail Man wrote:

I own my farm and investments, who should get it, I don't have any kids.Its a great place to go to after a bad day at work! To see all the wildlife,its a treasure! Alot of people don't see it as that but just a bunch of weeds.I have seen beautiful sunsets, huge flocks of migrating geese, deer,turkeys, rabbits, ect. I have planted a prairie and seen warm season grasses turn golden in the fall, wildflowers blooming all summer long, the woods all painted in a winter snow storm! I am richer beyond any stock gains for this. I will probably donate this to maybe a quail group when I die.

JUNE 29, 2013 12:08 P.M.

William Johnston wrote:

Quail Man: Be very careful. Many of my largest donations have caused friction and a bad relationship with the benefactors toward me when i was not interested in control of anything. There is jealousy (in that they think you owe it to them), infighting over management, etc. Avoid government controlled or religious groups. Most of these are run/controlled by individuals with no investment background or respect for what is given and therefore no appreciation. Often it is better to arrange for gift transfer after your death so you do not see the misuse! I have given over seven figures during my life and none of those I benefitted with large gifts would get a cent again or if I had known what I know now! I am 76 and still single but with several genuine friends, none from those I benefitted! Be careful! For many of my gifts have caused great disappointments!

MAY 25, 2014 12:23 P.M.

Quentin LaBrave wrote:

D. Pickering is not the great granddaughter.

She was adopted by Mary Lee Ryan and William Amherst Vanderbilt Cecil.

About Penta

Written with Barron’s wit and often contrarian perspective, Penta provides the affluent with advice on how to navigate the world of wealth management, how to make savvy acquisitions ranging from vintage watches to second homes, and how to smartly manage family dynamics.

Richard C. Morais, Penta’s editor, was Forbes magazine’s longest serving foreign correspondent, has won multiple Business Journalist Of The Year Awards, and is the author of two novels: The Hundred-Foot Journey and Buddhaland, Brooklyn. Robert Milburn is Penta’s reporter, both online and for the quarterly magazine. He reviews everything from family office regulations to obscure jazz recordings.